A few weeks ago, we featured a workshop presentation given by Jaime Cortez on the topic of planning and leading bi-cultural liturgies. We heard from many of you, thanking us for featuring an important topic and for providing practical, useful tactics that you could use in your own community. Today, we continue this important conversation, this time exploring the ways we can shape unity within our communities while still honoring diversity.

So, in place of our customary interview, today we are bringing you an audio program from the Open Your Hymnal podcast. Open Your Hymnal, cohosted by Zack Stachowski and by me, is a special project aimed at breaking open the best-loved and most-common liturgical music in the Catholic repertoire. Each episode explores one song and features conversation with the composer and, sometimes, special guests.

We are pleased to present today our interview with composer Bob Hurd about his song “Pan de Vida,” one of the earliest and best-loved examples of purpose-built bilingual liturgical music. Bob discusses what influences his music, how he relies on scripture for his texts, and the best ways we can bring unity to a world and a Church that is increasingly divided. This is a great conversation for anyone who ministers in a multi-cultural setting.

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Ministry Monday is a service provided by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM). It is the mission of NPM to foster the art of musical liturgy. The members of NPM serve the Catholic Church in the United States as musicians, clergy, liturgists, and other leaders of prayer. To learn more, please visit www.npm.org.